The leader of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai, hopes his decision to withdraw partially from his coalition with Zanu-PF has driven Robert Mugabe into a corner. But there are fears he has handed his bitter rival exactly what Mugabe has always wanted — exclusive power.
There was hope that the rival leaders would meet by Friday ”to holistically look at the issues that have led to the current situation”, Welshman Ncube, a minister and key negotiator of the agreement said on Wednesday. But even if a resolution is reached, the boycott has deeply wounded the coalition.
Tsvangirai partially withdrew his party from the nine-month unity coalition last week to protest against Mugabe’s refusal to reform. The decision was triggered by the arrest of MDC treasurer Roy Bennett, who was later freed on bail.
Tsvangirai’s calculation is that the boycott will goad the region into forcing Mugabe to end months of foot-dragging on key reforms. The Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) troika on security and politics will meet both sides next week, following Tsvangirai’s regional tour this week.
Mugabe chaired the Cabinet without Tsvangirai’s ministers on Tuesday, while MDC ministers held a separate meeting at their party headquarters, dramatising the rift.
But Mugabe is determined to show he can go it alone. At a meeting of senior Zanu-PF members this week, it was suggested Mugabe appoint ”acting ministers” to replace MDC ministers.
No decision was reached, but a senior Zanu-PF figure said: ”It’s something we are looking at; the business of government can’t stop because someone got petulant.”
Such a decision would be illegal and deepen the crisis. The MDC points out that its ministers have been reporting for work and were only suspending cooperation with Zanu-PF.
A ”disengagement”, rather than a pull-out, was a compromise Tsvangirai won from radical lieutenants who had pressed for full withdrawal, accusing him of failing to stand up to Mugabe.
The announcement cheered those who had begged the MDC leader to show more backbone. The boycott has also refocused regional attention on Mugabe’s continuing abuse of power.
But it does little to give Tsvangirai more traction in a coalition government where Mugabe has ensured that the MDC remains a junior partner.
An MDC minister said Tsvangirai may have painted himself into a corner, especially if he receives no concrete support from the region. ”Mugabe can simply refuse to move, then what? At what point will we re-engage?”
In public, Zanu-PF is playing the ”business as usual” card. Spokesman Ephraim Masawi dared the MDC to withdraw fully from the government. George Charamba, Mugabe’s secretary, claimed Mugabe was so unmoved that he was spending his time receiving visiting football teams.
Neither the power-sharing agreement nor the Constitution requires all ministers to attend Cabinet meetings — meaning that Mugabe can continue to run it without the MDC.
Under the agreement, real power resides in the Cabinet, which is tasked with the ”adoption of government policies and programmes” and financial allocations.
Arthur Mutambara, head of the smaller faction of the MDC that is the third coalition partner, told the Mail & Guardian his ministers would continue attending Cabinet to block consensus and bar Mugabe from further entrenching his control.
Mugabe’s opponents on trial
Movement for Democratic Change treasurer Roy Bennett, whose arrest on treason charges has imperilled Zimbabwe’s coalition, insists the charges are part of Robert Mugabe’s personal crusade against him.
”He has serious issues with me and has serious racial problems,” Bennett said last weekend.
Bennett’s charges arose from the arrest of arms dealer Mike Hitschmann in 2006 after police claimed the weapons found at his home were to be used to assassinate Mugabe.
Hitschmann was cleared of the treason charges, but was jailed for three years for illegally possessing arms. The trial is the latest in a series of trials of Mugabe opponents.
In 1982 the army claimed to have unearthed an arms cache at a property owned by Joshua Nkomo’s Zapu. Nkomo escaped into exile, returning years later to negotiate a unity agreement with Mugabe.
In 1995 opposition figure Ndabaningi Sithole was arrested for allegedly hiring hitmen to kill Mugabe. Sithole was also accused of links with an unknown rebel group. Sithole was found guilty, but died while still appealing.
In 2002 Morgan Tsvangirai was accused of plotting to overthrow Mugabe after an Australian television station showed a secretly taped video of the opposition leader and Israeli fixer Ari Ben-Menashe discussing Mugabe’s ”elimination”.
Tsvangirai was cleared in 2004.
In 2008 MDC secretary general Tendai Biti was arrested for treason, accused of writing and distributing a document detailing a plan to remove Mugabe from power. Biti spent weeks in jail, but the charges were dropped in January.